The Sun offers up some pretty good free polybag sets over in the UK, something I usually miss out on, but a special thanks to RubeusHagrid for seeking out this set along with the 30131 Jack Sparrow in a boat for me.

(high res pics available here, also by clicking the images in the review)

THE REVIEW:

The Bag

Front:
The infamous polybag, now it a brilliant blue. This bag is the same size as most polybag sets such as 30050 or 30051.

Back:
The back of this bag has tons of warnings in multiple languages. Note to self, don't eat LEGO.

Instructions

Front:
In typical mini set fashion we have a single page which folds out to reveal a front and back side for building instructions. Here we have steps 1 through 10.

Back:
Steps 11 and 12, along with a nice advertising section with 1 no 2, no all 8 of the current Pirates of the Caribbean sets.

All Pieces:
47 in total plus the 2 extra pieces I received. Bricklink wants me to believe that there were 3 extra pieces. I guess I missed out.

Step Six
halfway done, maybe it was a minifig sled in an earlier life
I usually don't do build pictures of mini sets, but step 6 had me thinking that this would make a good sled for my sigfig. It seems I need a new face, I don't look too happy, yet I'm actually quite happy to have this set.

Completed Ship Left:
9 studs long not including the solid black saber blade that protrudes about 4 extra studs.

Completed Ship Right:
Here you get the backside of the sails and I don't like this view as much.

Completed Ship Front and Rear:
4 studs wide and nicely packaged for being so small, if you ask me. Like all mini's it'll fit on your desk for sure.

Ship Top View, Plus Extra Parts:
I thought it'd be a waste to post 2 single studs in a picture by them selves so the top view was born. With a strange depth of field this picture is here primarily to show the two wonderful studs that were included at no extra charge, ironic since it was free.

Completed Ship
In it's glory, the Black Pearl is ready to pillage a village near you, or get trapped in a bottle. Worth the price, and I'm assuming f it was for sale it be around the $3-4 range. I'd buy one.

Totals:

Design: 8/10 I like the design but the sails are something to be desired. I can not really blame LEGO, I'm not sure how else they could have done it, so it looses a few points for that. I also think the light saber blade is too long for the front of this ship, they should have used the new 3L size that came with the spaceman collectable minifigure.

Parts: 5/10 The front sail is the only unique part that I find worth mentioning, otherwise this is made up of very basic parts.

Build: 7/10 For as easy as a build that it was, clipping on each sail got annoying, especially if you accidentally knock one off in the process. Other than that it's a simple build that should take you less than a minute to complete.

Minifigs: 0/10 To be fair, the other promo set gets you a free Jack Sparrow, so I can't hold it agains them that we get none here, I'll leave this out of the rating.

Playability/Displayability: 10/10 This doesn't really fit into any other size category for playing, so I added the category of Display here since it's a great display model. It may not be perfectly accurate but it's accurate enough, and looks good on my desk.

Price: 10/10 You can't beat free. OK, it wasn't totally free, you had to buy the newspaper, but I actually obtained this through a trade with an EB member.

Total: 40/50 For a mini set, it's good, but not as good as some mini's of the past. I'm a big Pirates of the Caribbean fan so this was a must have no matter what. For the average collector, you may want to pass it over, especially if bricklink prices go up.

I think TLC has done a pretty good job of creating the Black Pearl using only 47 pieces. Of course for that price range I don't think you could expect too much more from a little polybag set. It doesn't look outstanding, but it's recognizable enough and seems as though sufficient effort was put into the design. I'd say this is certainly a welcome addition to the PotC line.

Good review of a nice little set. One thing though, this one actually came with The Sun rather than News of the World (the difference being NotW is a Sunday paper and costs £1 as opposed to 30p, probably why that had the minifig Jack in!)

Good review of a nice little set. One thing though, this one actually came with The Sun rather than News of the World (the difference being NotW is a Sunday paper and costs £1 as opposed to 30p, probably why that had the minifig Jack in!)

Excellent review :) I was going to do one myself but your pictures do it far more justice!
Its a nice little set indeed for what it is and how many parts go into it. I do find the dark tan jumpers to be quite a nice addition. Though as you say, the sails with their clips can get quite annoying hehe.

Good review. I've added it to the index and the first page of the PotC thread.
I think I prefer the other polybag sets because of the Jack Sparrow minifig, but this one is nice too.
The main sail was placed too low on your pictures compared to the set image, but that's no big problem of course
Anyway, thanks for giving us some better views of this set.

Parts: 5/10 The front sail is the only unique part that I find worth mentioning, otherwise this is made up of very basic parts.

Not to nitpick really, but I was curious about the dark tan jumper plates. The 1x2 dark tan jumper plate only appears in 5 sets, according to bricklink:http://www.bricklink...colorID=69&in=A

Other than this Black Pearl polybag, it's in 2 large exclusive sets, an Indiana Jones set, and a game. There are 4 in this polybag and the next cheapest source is the Orient Bazaar game, from which there are 5 of these. So that makes this polybag the cheapest way to accumulate this part (assuming this goes on sale for a reasonable price eventually).

Not to nitpick really, but I was curious about the dark tan jumper plates. The 1x2 dark tan jumper plate only appears in 5 sets, according to bricklink:http://www.bricklink...colorID=69&in=A

Other than this Black Pearl polybag, it's in 2 large exclusive sets, an Indiana Jones set, and a game. There are 4 in this polybag and the next cheapest source is the Orient Bazaar game, from which there are 5 of these. So that makes this polybag the cheapest way to accumulate this part (assuming this goes on sale for a reasonable price eventually).

Thanks for pointing that out, I had no idea. My bases for the rating is on my personal feelings towards the parts. Granted those are apparently pretty rare, to me they are nothing special. The piece has been around for literally decades, and I have a bunch of them. That's the main reason why I rated them the why I did.

I'm very happy you pointed that out because now when people see my review, they will also get your bit of knowledge on the parts.

Really nice review, Big Cam, especially the pictures. This is a nice little set, too, one of the better MINIs that I've seen lately, parts-wise. Not the best design, unfortunately, but you can never have enough dark tan.

Really nice review, Big Cam, especially the pictures. This is a nice little set, too, one of the better MINIs that I've seen lately, parts-wise. Not the best design, unfortunately, but you can never have enough dark tan.

Thank you, I agree, even if it had been $4, I'd have bought one.

WhiteFang, on 28 May 2011 - 05:03 PM, said:

Nice review too! I am looking forward to pick this up to compliment into my POTC collection. It does make a fine piece of ornament at mine office desk.

I'm happy I was able to get one for the price/trade value I did.

Captain Green Hair, on 28 May 2011 - 06:47 PM, said:

Hey that is a neat little set, I hadn't seen it yet!
And a damn fine review too sir.

Thanks CGH.

legolooney, on 06 June 2011 - 12:22 PM, said:

Great work, really wanted to get my hands on this but The Sun had sold out by the time i got to a newsagents

Oh well, neat little review - i will probably end up buying it off bricklink.

I just received my Voodoo Jack Sparrow in the mail from ebay, my polybag set of PotC is finally complete. At least these are small, so they are still pretty cheap.